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Amazon Music’s new “Produced By” series spotlights today’s talented, underrepresented producers. Along with Margo Price’s “Leftovers,” Memphis-based Matt Ross-Spang produced songs for John Prine, Al Green, and William Bell for his “Produced By” feature.

Margo said:

“I wrote ‘Leftovers’ based on the kinds of people that don’t have any original ideas of their own. It could be anything from stealing a song idea, to copying someone else’s style, or dating an ex of a good friend….I also really just wanted to rhyme ‘asshole’ with ‘casserole’ and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Matt Ross-Spang is a legendary producer and engineer in the making, who puts his blood, sweat and tears into making some of the best sounding records of our decade. We always have a lot of fun in the studio.”

For nearly the last four years, Jordan Cook has been back in the studio, meticulously perfecting new songs, and we MIGHT just finally get a debut album in 2018. He’s back with a driving new single, “Wanna Don’t Wanna.” The band is also about to embark on a huge fall tour with festival dates at Riot Fest, ACL, and the Bourbon & Beyond Festival in Louisville, Ky.

The Watson Twins, Chandra and Leigh, are fellow University of Evansville graduates. Leigh and I took printmaking class together. One time in Nashville, after they performed with Jenny Lewis, she invited me back to the Kings Of Leon’s house for a party. I declined because, at the time and for no real good reason, something about hanging out and drinking with the Kings of Leon guys gave me a lot of anxiety. I’ve think always regretted not going. Our grandmothers even played in a weekly card game together. Anyway, that’s all just to disclose that at one time, we had a friendly, personal relationship.

The twins will release their sixth and latest album, DUO, on October 12th, and the first single, “Hustle and Shake,” is a beauty. The two expertly showcase their years of harmonizing and creating compelling folk music together. The sister co-write all songs and sing all parts together throughout the album. The album was produced by Russ Pollard (Everest, Sebadoh) and also features guest musicians Carl Broemel and Bo Koster (My Morning Jacket), Vanessa Carlton, Mickey Raphael and The Cactus Blossoms.

It was a first-time journey for me to St. Charles, located in NE Iowa. I was joined by the wife and my two daughters. We packed up our camper and made the 8-hour drive from Indianapolis to the Hinterland Music Festival. It was an epic sojourn, well worth the effort.

Hinterland sets up in a huge, perfect bowl shaped field, funnelling down to the grand stage. It affords excellent views from all angles. The crowd is relaxed and friendly. There is only the slightest bit of countrified, Midwestern festival-goer irony. It’s the polite kind. One showgoer explained his “Fight Farmers Fight” vintage cap to me, “It’s funny because you could read it two ways! Right?!” I recently read that if the nearby Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago was the cool, city mouse fest, then Hinterland sets up perfectly as it’s country mouse cousin. I liked that. It’s a good analogy for the fest, but don’t mistake that to mean that there is anything amateur or backwoods about it. It is a fully professional, perfectly laid out and executed music festival.

The lineup, as I’ve heard it was in years past, was expertly curated. I thought CHRVCHES would be the oddball in a mostly americana-filled card, but they worked in just fine and the crowd responded to them with every bit of enthusiasm as they did for Sturgill Simpson. Rightfully so, to both, as they both put on amazing performances.

Many of the artists could be found roaming the crowd. From a media perspective, the Hinterland PR team was above and beyond accommodating. Artist roamed past the media trailer, and if you were brave enough, you could grab them pretty easily. I made the mistake of scheduling interviews, sadly to have many cancel, and one miss their flight and not make the fest. Still, J Roddy Walston and I had a great sit-down, and Sean Moeller, founder of Daytrotter.com, and I spent some quality time reminiscing about the good ol’ blog heyday of the mid-2000s.

Camping festivals are often fraught with layout and logistical pitfall: Over-crowded camping areas, muddy/dirty pits and walking areas, long lines in and for restrooms…you know the typical problems…but Hinterland was logistically easy, very clean, and worked by willingly helpful and overly polite staff, volunteers and security.

I’m excited for the 2019 lineup announcement, as I hope to make this one an end-of-summer break family tradition. Enjoy my amateur-ish photos below, but first: A major highlight was Sturgill Simpson and Wheeler Walker Jr. joining Tyler Childers on stage…

Generationals are back, and the duo has shared a new track entitled “It May Get Bad When You’re Lonely and Cold“! Generationals are NOLA natives Ted Joyner and Grant Widmer and have been creating infectious dance pop since 2007. No news on a new album.